Students to send supplies to Big Easy

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), Robert Gold THE NEWS-TIMES

Published 12:00 am, Thursday, March 30, 2006

NEWTOWN - Stephanie Suhoza can't imagine going to school without her books.

"You have nothing to look forward to and nothing to learn," said Suhoza, a
Newtown Middle School
eighth-grader.
Watching news of Hurricane Katrina last August, Suhoza saw kids her own age struggle to survive. She watched them lose their schools entirely to flooding.
"I never could see something like that happening in Newtown," Suhoza, 13, said.
"It's so weird thinking of kids my age, 13 and 14 years old, having to survive a hurricane with nothing on their backs and nothing to look forward to."
Suhoza, the school's student council president, and her peers at Newtown Middle School have held fundraisers throughout the school year to help hurricane victims.
Now, they are collecting school supplies, including books, pens, pencils and notebooks, to send to the
Sophie B. Wright Middle School
in New Orleans.
Students in each homeroom are collecting the materials through May 5. Then, with money they raised, they'll ship them to the
New Orleans school
.
Diane Sherlock
, the Newtown school's principal, said it helps remind everyone that Hurricane Katrina victims are still struggling to start over.
"We're really glad to keep this going," she said. "It's wasn't a short term disaster and we knew that."
Linda Dale Mulholland
, a teacher and student council adviser at Newtown Middle School, said she wanted the students to help children their age. That would make the devastation more real to them.
"It's just like picking up one extra thing for your family, but instead, donating it to another family," she said.
She searched the Internet for middle schools in New Orleans. With the help of Louisiana's state education department, Mulholland found out about
Sophie B. Wright
.
The school escaped major damage during the hurricane and was immediately used by the
Red Cross
and
National Guard
as a base, said
Lawrence Vinnett
, an administrative assistant at Sophie B. Wright.
Most students at the sixth-through eighth-grade school took their books home for the weekend before Hurricane Katrina hit and had them lost in the storm.
When Sophie B. Wright opened in January, the school welcomed students from around the city. About one-third of its 370 students came back. The rest are still scattered around the country.
Now, with nearly 330 students, the school has expanded to include fourth- and fifth-graders.
In many of the upper grades, students are sharing books.
"It's very heartwarming knowing that folks are concerned," Vinnett said. "It's very, very touching."
People interested in donating money for shipping and supplies, can send it to Newtown Middle School, 11 Queen St., Newtown, CT 06470.